Halloween is often a favorite holiday for kids. The costumes, the candy, and all of the festivities make it a favorite time of year for many. Part of that fun often includes a Halloween party. If it is your turn to play host this year, here is a look at some of the things to consider while you are planning. The better prepared you are, the more likely everything will go smoothly.

Who is coming?

Before you can really start the party planning, you need to know how big the party is going to be. Some parents will invite only their child's favorite friends, while others will make it an event for the entire class. How many you would like to invite is totally up to you, but it is helpful to have a number in mind before you start buying Halloween candy and favors.

Costume contest

A great way to pass some time during the party, as well as encourage everyone to come in costume, is to have a costume contest. If you are hosting a party for younger children, you will want to make sure that you have enough categories so that everyone wins a prize. Scariest costume, funniest costume, most creative costume, best animal costume, etc. can all be categories. If you have the time, you can have party goers nominate and vote for the different categories. Find some fun Halloween favors to hand out as prizes, or you can create your own medals or award ribbons.

Face painting

If you have a little artistic talent, face painting is another fun activity for a Halloween party. Brush up on drawing ghosts, pumpkins, black cats, and witches, and you will be good to go. This can be a great way for kids to participate if they didn't come in costume, or just a way to have fun. You might forewarn parents ahead of time that you are going to be doing face painting so that your little witches don't come in already coated in green face paint and warts.

Treat bag/bucket decorating

For a craft idea, you can have kids decorate their own bags or buckets to use that evening for trick-or-treating. You can purchase inexpensive bags or buckets for the kids to decorate with paints or by gluing Halloween decorations to them. Check your local craft store for inexpensive Halloween themed items to use.

Food, drink, and atmosphere

Food and drink are a part of any party, and Halloween is no exception. Of course, you will want to make things spooky. Consider decorating cookies or cupcakes with Halloween themes, serving punch with floating spiders, or trying out any other creepy Halloween recipes you have on file.

To set the mood, try dimming the lights. Orange and black streamers and balloons can give the room a festive air. Or you can hang fake spider webbing and put up tombstones if you want a creepier feel. Find some Halloween music to play in the background as well.

With a little creativity and planning, you can create a Halloween party that your kids will always remember.

Halloween and fly fishing may seem like an odd mix, but not for true anglers. Yep, I’m talking about the ultimate test of your abilities and nerve.

Dracula’s River

Okay, everyone knows the story of Count Dracula. The book is huge and has been turned into more than a few scary movies. The one the frightened me the most was the recent edition in which Keanu Reaves attempted to speak with an English accent. Truly scary. Anyway, the interesting thing about Dracula is that it is based on a real person.

Vlad the Impaler was a nasty man by any definition. By Vlad, I mean the Romanian Prince, not the Angels outfielder that blasts home runs…except in the playoffs to my dismay. With a nickname like “Impaler”, I shouldn’t have to recite his resume, but will mention that he had a thing for long sticks with one end buried in the ground and the other end sharpened to a point. It was very wise to stay on his good side - “Vlad, did you lose some weight?” and so on.

Vlad ruled Romania during his reign and was such an enthusiast for impaling that those in the lumber business look back upon him with sighs of happiness. As anyone knows from the book, Vlad had his home office at Bran Castle in the Carpathian Mountains although he maintained branch offices in London. In fact, the castle stands today and you can spend your hard earned tourist money strolling about the grounds, buying fake fangs, garlic and so on. What isn’t widely known, of course, is Bran Castle was never the home of Vlad, who apparently didn’t care for the overly religious décor and garlic garden in the backyard.

The true home of Vlad the Impaler is Dracula Castle, which sits on the Arges River. The castle is not a hot tourist destination. Perhaps this is because the only things left are a few stones sticking out of the ground. Nonetheless, below the castle runs the Arges River.

Known in antiquity as the Ordessus, this is the spot where Vlad did some of his top-notch impaling and supposedly tied a unique fly or two. Even after all these years, the fish remain influenced and it takes a brave angler to hit the spot.

Body armor, garlic and a shield are not typical equipment for fly fishing. If you’re going to fish with Vlad, however, each is a must. The fish are odd. The locals with missing fingers and hands will fill you in. The “Impaler Pike” is known to react to being hooked by accelerating towards the angler and leaping from the water in the direction of one’s nether region. The Arges Cutthroat, of course, needs no description, but the Big Macks definitely give rise to the need for garlic. Finally, the Vlad Muskie can be caught, but an older gentlemen with only one ear suggested this isn’t necessarily a good thing. All and all, one doesn’t so much catch a fish below Vlad’s castle as survive the experience.

You may be wondering about the best flies to use in such circumstances. The old stand by Woolly Bugger? Perhaps a Clauser’s Minnow? Nope. According to locals, just nip a finger, rub the blood on a hook and off you go!

Happy Halloween From Nomad Journals!

By the way, you really can fly fish on the Arges below Vlad’s true castle. No armor needed, but garlic keeps the mosquitoes off.

Little blood suckers.

The only bad Halloween craft project is the Halloween craft project that takes too long. You know the ones. The craft projects that have so many steps that you’ve lost the attention of your kids before step 2. Give these easy Halloween craft ideas a try. They’re short; they’re sweet; they’re fun and the end results are spooktacular.

Antenna Characters These adorable characters look great at the top of your automobile antenna. Hey, if your house is dressed up for Halloween, why shouldn’t your car? With various Halloween-themed colors of flat fun foam (orange, black, white, green), draw a light outline of a pumpkin, ghost, spider or Frankenstein head, approximately 4-inches tall and 3-inches wide. Cut out the shapes and with a single hole punch, punch two holes in each shape, one approximately one inch from the top of the shape and another hole approximately one inch from the bottom of the shape.

With glitter glue or permanent markers, decorate the shape with facial features, an outline or anything you’d like. Allow to dry thoroughly. Once dried, you can attach to your automobile antenna by placing the antenna through the bottom hole from the back of the shape to the front. Then place the antenna through the top hole, front to back. The Antenna Character should be secure and should withstand normal driving conditions.

Halloween Mosaics Mosaic art using tiles is very popular nowadays. Kids can duplicate this popular craft using construction paper instead of tiles or glass.

Prior to gathering the children around the table, cut small squares of various colors of paper, orange, red, blue, yellow, white, black, green, etc.

On a piece of heavy stock, white paper, draw the outline of a pumpkin, Frankenstein or other Halloween character.

With a small dab of all-purpose glue on the back of each square, kids can mosaic their way to a uniquely creative masterpiece that can be framed and hung on the wall for many Halloween seasons to come.

Pumpkin Painting In less than one hour, you and your child can create the most adorable pumpkin craft ready to proudly display in your home. Pumpkin Painting is the perfect activity for little goblins who aren’t old enough to handle the jack-o-lantern carving duties.

With simple supplies like acrylic paints, markers, newspaper and sealer, kids can paint whimsical, silly faces on their pumpkins. Or they can paint their favorite cartoon character, Halloween motif or harvest design. Painted pumpkins do not rot near as quickly as carved pumpkins so it is much more economical to paint pumpkins rather than carving them and it’s also much safer and more hands-on for toddlers since there is no knife involved.